Cats

Good Evening, 27th December 2022

Peter Germany Cat, Editing, Horror, Horror Writer, Insperation, Life, Lifestyle, Men’s Mental Health, Mental Health, Nanowrimo, Random Thoughts, Uncategorized, Writing , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Howdy, folks! How are we all doing? Are people having a good festive period? Mine has been pretty darn good, but it’s back to work tomorrow. Which I am looking forward to, I enjoy my day job a lot and I like the routine (if shift-work has such a thing), and as most of my shifts are early’s I tend to have the rest of the day to get stuck into what I need to.

In the week before Christmas I had very little time to focus on writing, but I did manage to squeeze writing time in. This years NaNo project is still in process and I didn’t want to go too many days without working on it. I’ve had seven days this month where I haven’t done any writing at all, and likely a few days where I haven’t worked on NaNo ’22, but I’ve not let too many days in a row where I’ve not worked on it. Something I’ve talked about a lot on here is momentum, and I think it’s something that’s very important. I’ve lost momentum before and it’s very hard to get it back. I’m worried it’s going to happen again, so I’m hoping I’ve done enough so far with this story to stop me from hitting a roadblock that stops me dead like has happened in the past.

I don’t want this year to end with a bang, and I definitely don’t want it to end with a whimper. I want it to end with a nice steady pace, similar to where I am at the moment which rolls right into 2023 and continues.

I haven’t spoken much about my mental health publicly of late, that’s simply because I’m feeling better than I have done in a long time. Okay, then I’ve ever felt. Yes, there’s a long way to go. There are still things which really eat away at me, and as I kinda tick one thing off another three crop up. But I’m working on it all. I have less bad days now then I used to and the good ones are more frequent. I don’t believe it’s one or the other. I think some days are a mix of both, while others are neither. Those are the days I have most of, but even those days tend to be more towards the positive side of life.

The biggest lesson I feel I’ve learnt of late is to get a decent amount of sleep. Life is a lot more settled when I’m more rested.

We all have that one co-worker that don’t do much 😉🤣

16th June 2022

Peter Germany Cat, Health, Life, Men’s Mental Health, Mental Health, Writing , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Howdy folks, It’s the first really blistering warm day of the year here in the UK. So obviously I’ve spent a fair chunk of it at my desk. I did spend about four hours in the garden sorting something out, and have now got a sunburnt bald spot. Lovely.

But writing wise, I’ve written 2356 words on a non-fiction piece that I needed to type up, and it’s done now. This is one of those pieces that is acting a little about self-therapy. Analysing elements of life while I try and figure myself out better. This one was about the car trade of which I spent nineteen and a half years in. I’d love to publish it, but I think I’ll hold off for a while, if ever. It’s something I’ll have to see how I feel with it.

I’ve also done one of these on confidence, well my lack of confidence. That’ll be typed up next. Before that though I’m going to start working through Black Blood again. I’ve got a lot of notes that need to be transferred into it, and hopefully this’ll be my second to last post before sending it off to beta readers.

Not a cat bearing structure 🙄
Yes, that’s helpful!

Right, I’m off for the evening. I’ve got work tomorrow then I’m off kayaking with my brother and his partner.

Have a great one, folks!

I Had A Plan!!!!

Peter Germany Cat, Dog, Life, Lifestyle , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

My plan was to get up at about 8am. I don’t need to be in work for an early today and I had no other reasons to get up early. So I set an alarm for 8am, which is a lay in for me, and settled in for what I was hoping would be a good nights sleep. It didn’t start well when Max did his guard dog duties and after I checked the house, garden and so forth I decided to let him sleep upstairs for the night. That did the trick and he settled down, and only tried to get on the bed once.

Then, at 5am Raven woke me up by trying to knock items out of my window (could you be any more cliched, Raven?). I removed her from the window and put her on the bed with a “really?” that she paid no attention to.

She jumped off and Max decided to it was time to play with Raven. She wasn’t interested and smacked him on the nose and jumped back in the window. Can you guess what she was doing? I repeated the earlier removal method and this time she ran off down the landing.

Flash forward to a little after 6:30am and I heard something that broke me out of my slumber to find Max with his head on my bed, he had the look that all people with a dog knows. So I let him out. It was this moment that I knew it was time to get up because I was awake.

So y’all get a blog post! 😀 It’s been an amusing morning with Dizzy being the only one of the furry family that didn’t wake me (although she tried to sit on the keyboard as I’m writing this post).

Have an absolutely awesome day, everyone! Here in my part of the UK the sun is shining and I’m going to go out and do some garden work in a bit, I might even sit out there and do some writing.

Good Morning, Tuesday 22nd of March 2022

Peter Germany Cat, Editing, Gaming, Health, Horror, Horror Writer, Insperation, Life, Lifestyle, Men’s Mental Health, Mental Health, Video Games, Writing , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Good Morning!

I have tea, Raven is climbing over my printers while Dizzy is sitting staring at my from besides my chair. A scrap is imminent….but I’m awake. I’ve got a late shift today so I wanted to get up and get cracking early and for once it feels like I have done. There was no ‘snoozing’ of alarms. No rolling over for ‘another five minutes’ which always turned into at least another half an hour. I have an Amaranthe playlist via YouTube playing and I’m ready to get some words cracked out. I’m even dressed!

So, what’s the day got planned for me. I’d like to knock out another thousand words of zombie. I think that is very achievable. Just plug away until about midday I think and then that gives me a little time for lunch, half an hour on GTAV and a few other bits and bobs before heading off to work.

That all sounds really straight forward. It’s not. I’ll be editing as I type of the hand written draft of zombie. So I’ll be having to think on the go and I’m going to try and read the scene before I type it up so I know what point the scene is taking the story to. I am feeling quite a bit of pressure with zombie. This will be my first release and it’s got to be right. I don’t want to be that person who puts something out into the world and it’s poorly put together. Typos, spelling mistakes, bad layout, and so on. I trust my editor, she is incredibly good at what she does and I know she won’t let me embarrass myself.

They’re behaving…….for the moment……

But, I’m pushing through. I’m not letting my self-doubt stop me. I’ve had far too many months where that doubt has had me dragging my heels on writing. I know the why of this, and I’ll talk about it one day but it deserves more than a few sentences in a daily post. I know I can do this. I know it’s time to step up. And I know I keep repeating this, but that is more for myself. It’s me keeping that positivity at the forefront of my consciousness.

Self doubt, imposter syndrome, what ever you want to tag it with, is a prick. It’s a horrible feeling and one that when it takes hold it can shut me down in a heartbeat. But it will not win. It may gain ground by winning small battles but I will win the war.

Scruffy selfie!

Ko-Fi Link:

2nd of March 2021

Peter Germany Cat, Editing, Horror Writer, Insperation, Life, Lifestyle, Mental Health, Writing , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Hey folks!

596 today on the vampire book, but I also deleted 2466 words today. Before I deleted those words the overall word count was 48,800 words. At this rate I think this book will end up about 70,000 words. There’s a lot of story to go, but I can see the ending in sight.

A tale of two cats! 🤣

I’ve got another late shift tomorrow, and where I’ve left this story today I will be getting stuck into a chunk where we discover a lot and there’s some good friction to it as well. I’m looking forward to getting stuck into that tomorrow! I’m hoping it’ll flow like the scenes I wrote yesterday. What I did today was more connecting the last scene and the next one together. It’s not a bridging scene as it opens up the next section of the story, it’s a small but key part of the mystery of a couple of characters deaths. But the next scene will be, hopefully, page turning!

Right, time to grab something to eat and then get ready for work! Rock on folks!

Goofing around 🤪

9th of October 2020

Peter Germany Cat, Life, Mental Health, Writing , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Good evening folks, how are we all doing tonight?

I have written 889 words today, and wrote almost 500 yesterday. I think I could have pushed a bit more to get that 1k hit but at gone nine it’s time to start winding down for the night.

I wrote yesterday about failing each day, and it’s a post I stand by. I was feeling a little down, but not massively. I did feel like I wasn’t hitting targets I should be hitting, and I do still feel that. But I am winning each day as well. Every day that I write, I’m winning. Every day I’m thinking about the stories I’m working on. Figuring out where I’ve gone wrong and how to fix that, it’s a win.

I was trying to take a semi-professional selfie and got pounced on by our mini-panther.

Stepping up is something I need to do. I’ve got three short stories being released in three different anthologies by the end of the year, and at the risk of getting some grief from fellow writers, I haven’t tried that hard to find places to submit. Two of the anthologies were invite only from publishers I’ve worked with before, and the third story is from also from a publisher I’ve had the pleasure of working with before. So, I really need to step up finding places to submit too. I am where I am because I’ve written pieces that editors have liked. Now, it’s hard for me to write that because there’s still a part of me that thinks I suck, but my friends yell at me if I say that. And with some of what has gone on this year I’ve had help snapping my head out of the mindset that I am nothing.

I made the mistake in placing these blankets on my printer, which Dizzy decided was worthy of being her throne. (that’s a printer, not a throne!)

This next year I’ve got a lot planned, I hope I can pull it all off. My biggest problem is discipline. I get easily distracted and need to get better at sitting in the chair and just getting the work done.

I’ve got everything I need to progress. The only thing holding me back, is me.

28/8/2020

Peter Germany Cat, Editing, Life, Writing , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Good afternoon folks! How are we all doing today? I’m just about to start work, but managed to get 1707 words done this morning on a piece that feels quite brutal in a lot of ways and I hope

It reads as bleakly as it feels then I think I’ll have pulled it off.

I’m still feeling pretty good. That one part of my life which is very hard at the moment is the same as it has been for a week or so. Again, not going into details as I don’t believe they are needed here. Everything else is improving nicely and I feel like I’m beginning to find my feet again. I looked at my projects list last night and I am making progress, despite having added to that list.

I’ve got plans on Sunday but I’ll have some time ahead of those to get some writing done. I’m going to focus on edits of projects that are in different stages and a little bit of writing. I know the submissions dates of two anthologies I want to submit to and I have a little breathing space on both of them.

That’s a printer, not a cat perch 🙄

Another story will be submitted on Sunday, if all goes to plan. It’s a little close to the deadline but I should be okay.

Right folks, as you can see I’m making progress but now I need to get into work. Have a good day, all!

23rd August 2020 (Oh Yeah!)

Peter Germany Insperation, Life, Short Fiction, Writing , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

1698 words done, and a short story first draft done! Seriously happy with this. It follows a lovely afternoon with family. I’m really happy with the way the story has gone, and I’m looking forward to diving into the edits this coming week.

This story is for an anthology that I’ve seen the call for. So I’ll get it in as good a shape as I can before getting it to my beta readers and then off to the editor.

I already have the next story underway, as I’ve mentioned in the last couple of posts. It’s a way off being finished, but I’ve got a good feel for it. This is for an anthology as well, I’ve got to check the submission window and see what time I have to play with.

These two stories are for an anthology series and I’ve got a feeling that this one, that isn’t even a thousand words yet, has it’s deadline before the one I finished today. So I’ve got to look it up in a minute.

I’m really enjoying having my own little space to write. It was nice just going in, popping the window open, getting some music going and just writing. It’s a nice space with a good feel and even though it’s not nearly done yet I can see little things that I want to do to it as I go.

Dizzy hanging out in the office, okay not hanging out but asking for dinner! 🤣

Today has been good, a little emotional at times, but not bad emotionally. One part of my life is shite, and will be for a while I believe but I’m not letting anything defeat me. I’m fired up, and can see how (writing wise) the next eighteen months could go.

Tomorrow, I go again 😊

7th August 2020

Peter Germany Editing, Life, Writing , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Good evening folks, 3462 words edited on a short story that I’ll be looking to submit to an anthology which has a submission deadline which is the end of the month.

I spent a fair part of the day setting up a desk in what will be an office eventually. I did get those words edited and I’m looking forward to making the most of the space. It still needs work, and it’ll be something I’ll work on over time as I’ve got more pressing things to get sorted.

Raven ‘helping’

I’ve been given a printer that means I can print the documents off and get red-penning. It’s a method that works for me; edit a digital draft, then go through a printed draft with a red-pen. Boom! Done. It’s worked well for me in the past and I think it’ll work well for me now.

It felt good getting that space set up. Not got a lot to smile about at the moment but this did feel good. Proactive and something that’s going to help me focus on writing when I have the time to sit down to get the words done.

This sort story will be with beta readers by the end of the weekend. I like it, it’s one that when I was working on it yesterday I wrote a bit which rattled me a little and I had to go out and sit in the garden for a while to compose myself. Editing it today wasn’t as bad as writing it, but still wasn’t fun. To me that means (hopefully) I got it right.

That’s a wrap for tonight. I’m knackered after a few challenging days.

Rock on, folks!

26-7-2020

Peter Germany Editing, Writing , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

No writing, no editing done today. I’m past tired. I’m going to watch a movie then bed. Tomorrow, I’m going to go for it. At least three chapters edited during a day where I’ve got calls to make, and a couple of appointments.

A short post tonight, so here’s a picture of senior kitty Dizzy playing like a kitten.